René Ménil (1907, Gros-Morne, Martinique – 29 August 2004) was a French surrealist writer and philosopher who lived on the island of Martinique.[1]
Born and raised on the island of Martinique, Ménil was one of several of the island's natives who studied in France and returned to influence the independence movement with the ideas of Marxism, and Surrealism. He was involved in helping to publish a literary journal in 1932 with Étienne Léro called Légitime Défense.[2] He also began the Antillanité movement.
In the early 1940s Ménil started a journal called Tropiques along with other notable Martinique writers such as Aimé Césaire. The publication spoke very strongly against French colonialism in its essays. To avoid retaliation from their powerful critics, they portrayed the magazine as a journal of West Indian folklore.[3]
A professor and writer throughout his life, in 1981 Ménil published a book of essays entitled Tracées (ISBN 978-22-2100-633-7).[4]
References
edit- ^ Dumain, Ralph. "Review: For Rene Menil, Caribbean Surrealist-Philosopher".
- ^ Lewis, Shireen K. (January 2006). Race, culture, and identity : Francophone West African and Caribbean literature and theory from négritude to créolité. Lanham. ISBN 0739114727. OCLC 65660903.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Kelley, Robin D.G. "A Poetics of Anticolonialism".
- ^ "Souvenirs de Case Pilote : René Ménil".
  | This article about a writer or poet from Martinique is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |